


Finn Hudson Goes to College… eventually.

by lankree



Series: Season 3 Rewrite: Snapshots [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2012-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 13:45:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/561710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lankree/pseuds/lankree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn's arc in the Season 3 Rewrite </p><p>It’s Senior Year and it’s time for Finn to pick a college… The first step is meeting with Ms. Pillsbury.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finn Hudson Goes to College… eventually.

Finn is wearing his nervous face. He couldn’t think of the last time he was in Ms. Pillsbury’s office. He was actually pretty sure he’d never been. On her south wall was a map of the United States that was covered with pictures of other kids in his class pinned over different cities. Some kids, like Mike Chang, had half a dozen strings leading out to different parts of the country. Finn had heard about it from Rachel: Ms. Pillsbury was tracking applications for the seniors, marking where they applied and where they were accepted.

Finn’s picture was not on the board at all.

On her north was her series of pamphlets: ranging from **Understanding Your** **Tumblr Addiction: Why you’re having all the feels.** to **Your girlfriend slept with your best friend and convinced you you were the baby’s daddy and other things that happen to loveable idiots.**

He did not like that one at all.

“Well, Finn. Welcome.” Emma said sweetly, pulling Finn’s attention from the pamphlets. “I’m glad we’re able to meet today to discuss your collegiate future.”

“Yeah, thanks Ms. Pillsbury. The other seniors keep saying November is the deadline for applications and I know I still have a couple months, but I could use some help with all the forms and choices and majors. It’s a lot.”

“It can be, but let’s start with the easy part. What were you thinking about studying?”

Finn frowned. “That’s the easy part?”

Emma ticked her head gently to the side. This wasn’t an uncommon conversation she had with her students, but it did surprise her that Finn was one of them. Leaders like Finn were typically very decisive, often hard-headed, but apparently that combined with being a well-intentioned goof seemed to have made Finn not so good at leading himself.

“Sometimes,” Emma quickly amended, not wanting Finn to get anxious. An anxious Finn was a sweaty and clumsy Finn. “Some people know the roles they were meant to play very early on.”

“Like Rachel and Kurt and Broadway or Mike and dancing.” Finn suggested.

Emma made a sweet, agreeable noise, nodding her head. “Have you, uh, thought about performing, professionally, as a career?”

“I don't think so. That isn’t for me. It’s okay to sing and dance in high school, but I think I’m going to leave it and football behind.”

“You’re giving up on football? Why is that?”

“Because I’m not very good.” Finn saw Ms. Pillsbury start to protest and brushed off her concern. “Not college good. I like football, but I don’t love it, you know? It gives me something to do with my hands and I’m still gonna play it and teach my son to play or my tomboy daughter if I’m lucky enough to get one of those instead of the girly-girl types.”

“And you can always play intramurals. Do you want to travel far from home or stay close? Do, do you like hot weather or cold weather? Is there any place you’d like to live?” Emma asked.

“I like the snow. I built a really awesome fort this year when we had that snow day for the blizzard. I couldn’t go in it because I forgot to build a door… so I guess it was really just a box… but it was a really big box! I’m good with hot weather too. I’m fine being sweaty. I think I could live anywhere as long as they had Mountain Dew.”

“Alright, so we’re not limited by interest, athletics, or geography, we can start to take a look at places that will have you.”

“Oh, you mean like my grades and stuff?” Finn frowned.

Emma pursed her lips, noticing Finn’s worries. She had Finn’s file in front of her and opened it quickly to scan his transcript. He only had two As through his entire academic career: one in PE and the other in auto shop. The rest were Cs and C-minuses, a few B minuses, and one D in Spanish in freshman year. That grade improved dramatically in sophomore year, the coincidence was not lost on Emma.

_Think, Emma. What would Will do to make Finn feel better?_

“Well, this is workable,” Emma said, pushing out of her mind Tier 1 and Tier 2 colleges from Finn’s options. “If you combine them with the right test scores and extracurriculars, which you have two really strong ones, what with being the captain of both Glee and Football for three years, there are plenty of large, state schools that would be glad to have you.”

Finn smiled. “I can do large. I could meet a lot of new people from really exotic places like Spain or Canada.”

Emma nodded. “Do you have your SAT scores back yet?”

Finn stopped smiling. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded envelop that had been torn open roughly across the top. Emma paused before opening the envelope. She sighed when she looked at the low scores: it had been too much to ask that Finn was a test taking savant like Brent who Emma was pretty sure wore his shoes on the wrong foot and sustained exclusively on Funyuns and Orange Slice.

“Do the scores really matter?” Finn asked scooting his chair closer to the desk.  “I just need high enough to get in, right? They look at other stuff, don’t they?”

She didn’t want to lie to Finn, but the numbers he pulled combined with his grades set him up only to be accepted at local community colleges. She remembered hearing about Finn’s moving speech in his sophomore year about leaving Ohio. While he was indecisive, Emma knew he wouldn’t go for that. She needed a way to spin the situation positively without Finn leaving with the idea that what he had was good enough.

“Of course they look at other things, but scores matter, Finn. They affect everything from your competitive ranking to your financial aid eligibility.”

Finn’s expression shifted to one of thoughtful determination.  “Wait, my parents would pay less if I did better on these tests?”

“Possibly,” Emma responded. “It depends on the school, but it wouldn’t hurt to take the tests again.”

“When’s the next test?”

“In two weeks,” Emma answered automatically. Her face knitted into a frown when she realized Finn’s intentions. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea to take those; you need time to find a tutor and really give yourself a head start.”

“But I need my scores to apply before the November deadlines.” Finn responded.

“Well, you could consider applying in the spring…” Emma provided. She could already see that her reasonableness was being beaten out by Finn’s single minded determination.

“No, I can do this.” Finn stated, looking determined and bright. “Kurt can help me. He’s got a lot of different words for calling people idiots, so he’d be great for the English parts and he’s great with numbers, he always knows how many scarves he can buy with his allowance… he does all the discounts in his head and he’s always right, he’s like a math magician.”

“Mathematician… never mind, just go find Kurt and ask him to help you immediately. I’ll register you for the test and the one after that if we find you need more time. We’ll look more into specific schools when we see what we’re working with.”

Finn smiled and stood up tall. “Thanks Ms. Pillsbury, you’re super awesome.”

“You’re welcome Finn… just… go find Kurt immediately. Right now.”

Finn bounded out of her office like a 17 year old force of excitable nature. Emma blew a short breath and made her way over to her side wall. Finn’s picture was laid out on the bookshelf, a green pin sticking through the top. Emma picked it up and smiled. She thought to stick him in near some of the safety schools she knew would take Finn in as he was, but she decided against restricting his choices just yet.

If it was one thing she knew, it was the Finn Hudson was limitless.


End file.
